Maybe we didn’t appreciate it before, but the pandemic made it clear just how much leadership matters.
From COVID-19 lockdown to the vaccine rollout, we’ve been witness to multiple examples of decision makers shaping our everyday lives and livelihoods. And like me, a lot of us were increasingly panicked during the last year watching the sausage get made in real time. I was horrified when Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota engaged in public campaigns against mask wearing at the height of the disease spread. Their decision to flout the science in favor of politics was scary — doubly scary as each state’s hospitalizations shot up and funeral homes were overrun with COVID-19 bodies. Florida’s Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings pushed back against the governor’s executive order to remove local fines on businesses not following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. But Rapid City, South Dakota, Mayor Steve Allender didn’t fight the tabling of the mask mandate.
Here in Massachusetts, former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker got positive ratings overall for how each navigated the changing CDC rules, the shortage of personal protective equipment, repeated spikes in infection rates and edicts governing community pandemic behavior. In normal times, poor leadership can sometimes be less obvious, with the mistakes borne by the people. But when times are not normal, you want a confident, competent leader — somebody in the big chair who knows how to face life-and-death situations.
Good leadership has always mattered. But after more than a year of pandemic living, it matters more.
Keeping that in mind, a lot of voters are primed to take an earlier look at the plans and promises of the candidates hoping to win in November. In the Before Times, traditionally voters didn’t begin to pay serious attention to candidates until Labor Day. Not now. When I moderated a forum a couple of weeks ago featuring five of the six Boston mayoral candidates, well over 500 attendees signed on. Considering the depth of Zoom fatigue at this point, that’s a significant turnout for an evening discussion dissecting the school committee, police reform and the Boston Planning and Development Agency. But I’ve also been listening in to casual but focused conversations in the grocery store and at an outside cafe — conversations during which voters were vetting candidates’ experience and backgrounds.
I would guess today’s voters would not be willing to shrug off former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia’s alleged illegal actions, as they were in 2019. Correia was reelected after he was charged with a scheme to extort marijuana licensees, as well as bilking investors. I was surprised then at the number of voters comfortable with giving him a pass. I’m convinced that pandemic-scarred voters would not view his actions in the same way. Ironically, Correia’s trial, a glaring case of the dangers of failed leadership, is underway now as candidates for Boston mayor and other state and city roles are revving up their campaigns.
Leadership guru Stephen Covey, whose “7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” has sold 25 million copies to date, points out that “leadership is a choice, not a position.” Post pandemic, 2021 voters will be looking to hire candidates they feel confident are ready to handle whatever may come. Those hoping to win seats five months from now would do well to understand that while there are many issues on the table, leadership is on the ballot.
